The famous frog bridge spans the Willimantic River, a shallow but sometimes rushing watery shaft that drops 90 feet as it passes through this old mill town. There are deep green tree glades on either bank sheltering an eagle, herons, hawks, cranes, fish, and of course, frogs.

February 15, 2009

Victory Seed Co. ++

Are you planning your own victory garden to produce food for your family?

This morning I came upon the Victory Seed Company website which sells seeds that are worth having.Their mission statement - and they like a few other companies, ARE on a mission not just maximizing profits -- explains:

The primary reason for our existence as an organization is to help protect open-pollinated and heirloom seed varieties during a time when the diversity of plant life on our planet is quickly shrinking.

Regions of the planet that provided much of the genetic material for our domesticated crop plants is rapidly being destroyed or irreversibly damaged. Additionally, in the past few years there has been a growing trend of mergers and consolidations among the seed industry. With responsibility to shareholders as a motive, less profitable and similar seed varieties are being dropped from the seed lines of the combined companies. In many cases, these plants are forever lost to us all.

As we witness the elimination of old varieties from other company's offerings, the emphasis of commercial unstable hybrids, and the proliferation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we feel an urgency in our mission.

Among other useful treasures, their website has an excellent glossary of terms I keep seeing in seed catalogs and have only a rough idea of what they mean, and the distinctions between words that are similar or overlapping. I looked up "open-pollinated" plants, because I was unsure what that entailed.